world mirror
In many places in the USA, large investors are buying into trailer parks. The price is paid by residents who often already live on a subsistence level. But there is resistance.
Owning your own house for less than $20,000 – this dream has come true for Aliene Olsen. She lives in a mobile home park – that’s what trailer parks are also called. It is located on the west coast of the USA near the city of Seattle. The pensioner says she wanted to spend the rest of her life here. She couldn’t afford a normal house. Now her dream is in danger of bursting. The problem that Olsen and others have in such parks: the houses belong to them. But the properties below are rented. And investors have discovered them.
Olsen bought her house about nine years ago. At that time the park belonged to another owner. He also increased the parking space rent, but only by around $10 to $15. She says she could afford that. Since an investor from Florida bought the land under her trailer almost two years ago, the rent for her property has risen from around $600 to around $800, Olsen reports. With a pension of $1,100 a month, if there is a further increase, there won’t be enough left to live on: “I need gas to get to the doctor, everyday things like soap or shampoo.” The investor did not want to comment on the rent increases.
Very few people can simply move away
It is estimated that approximately six percent of all Americans live in mobile home parks. Traditionally, such parks were owned by so-called “mom and pop operators.” This refers to families or small family businesses. If the younger generation is no longer interested in the parks, they will be sold, explains Victoria O’Banion. She works for the non-profit organization “ROC Northwest” and works with park owners, investors and local residents.
The advantage for investors: The maintenance costs are significantly lower compared to other rental apartments or houses. For example, if the roof breaks, the homeowners pay, not the property owner. And: Residents like Olsen cannot move so easily and therefore have to somehow continue to pay rising rents. Because the trailers are usually not as mobile as the name sounds. Olsen’s can’t just be driven around – it’s too old and too expensive to move. “I’m trapped,” she says.
Aliene Olsen complains about the increased property rent – but she can’t afford to move either.
Local residents form a cooperative
There is another mobile home community two minutes’ drive away. Rose Best lives here with her husband Shawn Hickox. They were threatened with a similar fate to Aliene Olsen. Your advantage: There is now a law that requires residents to be informed early enough about the sale of the land. This was not the case when the park where Olsen’s trailer is located was sold.
Bests and her neighborhood were warned in the fall that the owner wanted to sell the land. Together with all residents, they want to forestall interested investors and buy the properties themselves – for more than ten million dollars. They can’t do it alone.
That’s why Victoria O’Banion is helping. Your employer “ROC” supports trailer parks all over the country: the residents get together and form a cooperative, a kind of cooperative. “ROC” helps with complicated founding and financing. Because those who live on the subsistence level should also be able to buy here. The residents decide how much each person pays.
Rose Best hopes that the cooperative sponsorship of the settlement will soon allow her to worry less about money.
A loan must be paid off
In Best’s settlement it is $100 per household. Of course, this is not enough to cover the overall financing needs, explains O’Banion. Best and the others have to continue paying the rent for their properties – with surcharges – in order to repay the loan at some point.
Taking on such a big project – isn’t that scary? “I haven’t signed anything yet,” says Shawn Hickox, laughing. His wife adds: “We are not responsible as individuals, but rather the cooperative.” Even if they have to pay off the loan for the land for a long time, they now have control over how much the costs of their land increase.
“I’m excited. And relieved. That’s a big worry that I no longer have to worry about,” says Rose Best. She hopes that Aliene Olsen and her settlement will at some point have the opportunity to purchase the land among their own houses to think about.
You can see these and other reports on Sunday, April 7th, 2024 at 6:30 p.m. in “Weltspiegel”.